For more references

Writing Dynamic Settings

Creating a Setting

How To Make Your Setting a Character

5 Tips for Writing Better Settings

Here it is! The long awaited setting chapter. I’ve tried to do some research, but really… I’m just going to ballpark it and say there are three critical aspects of setting, location, time, circumstances. Here we go!

Location: Your location is literally where the story takes place. Is this Korea, is this earth? Is it in a school or at the park? At the studio or in a coffee shop? A multitude of these. Most of the time, this is super important. To a grasp of what is happening in the story, it is first helpful to picture where things are happening. If the location isn’t described well, the reader can feel lost or the details of the story might sound less believable.

I think even the most common places should be recognized in a story. Not all schools are the same. Neither are bedrooms, stores, restaurants, malls, etc. The scene you can see from a window in one room is not the same as one from another. Simply for the reader, describing the location well makes it easier to read.

However, every detail is not needed. Think about what is necessary and what is not. I’m currently enrolled in a class that does in depth reading on George R.R. Martin’s A Song of Ice and Fire and one of the things we discussed is Martin’s excessive description of things that do not matter (though really they do). Some of the most recognizable are his descriptions of meals. While technically we as scholars can understand a lot from having twenty different dishes described in detail, as a reader, we kind of don’t care. When we had assigned readings, my professor told us it was alright to gloss over some of those excessive details.

So we don’t need the print of the bed sheets described in full when the sheets have no meaning. We don’t need to know the exact location of every student in the classroom (just as we don’t need to know about every student). And we don’t need to know about every product lined up on the store shelves.

If you want to describe that there are a lot of things and it doesn’t have a purpose other than to build up the image of the location, descriptions like “a cluster of clothes on the floor,” and “office supplies lined neatly on the desk” will suffice. If something does have meaning, then it is recommended to give it proper attention. Something like specific decorations on a bedroom wall or the temperature of the room.

(Location: My dorm room. My personal lamp is on as my roommate hates the white light that emanates from the main light. Though I don’t know when my roommate will return, I use it cautiously. Our room is clean, though the corner my roommate dubbed “the pantry” is cluttered with coffee products and toiletries. Luckily it is on her side of the room between her desk and bed. The room is fairly warm as we turned up the heater to combat the coldness of the outside. Still, I’m wrapped up in a few layers of blanket on my bed. There is a lot of space, but I still struggle to find places to set things on top of. I had to build my own bedside table and a bookshelf out of the boxes I used to bring my belongings. It feels a little cramped, but when the lights go out, the hundreds of glow in the dark stars make me feel like I’m part of a vaster world.)

Time: This is not only the literal what time is it to the exact minute sort of thing, but also the broader sense of it. Is it the past, present, or future? What season is it? An exact date? Night or day? What is the lunar cycle? How much time is elapsing? Pre-lawsuit, during lawsuit, post-lawsuit? The time a story takes place can drastically change the meaning of the events happening. 

Imagine what would happen if someone started telling a story about working in the music industry and everything seemed wrong? Everything seems too easy and too nice. It doesn’t seem anything like what we have been experiencing now. What the author of this metaphorical story has forgotten to do is mention that the story takes place in the future when artists have more rights.

During my English class last year this played a major role when everyone had to read different novels for a big paper. Some novels were based in the 19^th century, others in present day, a few went back a couple hundred years. One of the novels took place in two different time periods as the main character relived moments in memories. When writing our papers, we had to pay attention to the time period and what that meant to the story.

This is again, not something you have to go into great detail about. You don’t have to mark the beginning of every chapter with a date (though go for it if the story is in a diary or log format). It’s alright to be vague about some things. In a plot driven story, sometimes the time (or overall setting) doesn’t even matter.

(Time: Right now. It’s almost eleven at night. My roommate left seven hours ago to god knows where. She probably won’t be back for a few more hours. So I’ve been alone in the room not doing anything substantial. Even though my first finals are on Friday, I haven’t started studying and am instead writing this. Oh well, it’s only Monday, It’ll work out. Since my first semester of college is winding down, more and more of my classes are ending and I find myself with free time. If I just last a few more weeks, the break will be here. One beautiful month long break.)

Circumstances: Picture this –band fic or AU? Historical or futuristic? Magic of science? Education or working? I think of this as the plot aspect of the story or a combination of the first two parts of setting. Specifically is this a band fic or is this a non-band fic? Is this an AU or non-AU? Do the rules of this world apply, or are things being made up? Are the boys next door members of EXO, is my teacher Lee Minho, is this group still a band, is this the future where 3D printing is so advanced that people are actually not human?

For instance, I started writing a somewhat vampire AU (but they’re not really vampires) that takes place on another planet (for the most part). It is a very scientific story that goes into biology and stuff, but most importantly, the characters are definitely not members of their respective bands nor are they normal members of our society. It is a completely different world with completely different rules. Yeah, a lot of these things fall under plot, but describing them and making it understandable falls under setting for me.

(Circumstances: Normal. I’m just an average above-average college student. EXO does not live next door to me and Lee Minho does not teach on my campus. Perhaps both of these things are positives. BUT LITTLE DID YOU KNOW I AM ACTUALLY THE BATMAN!)

Alright, let’s go through some of the things I’ve looked up.

Use the five senses: Well, that seems self-explanatory. The smell (or taste) of apple and cinnamon can mean the season is fall. The frigidness of my fingers as the wind blows into my jacket sleeves hints at the coldness of the weather. A sunset means the end of the day. Car horns blaring paint the image of city traffic during rush hour.

(Five senses: At least once the guys in the room to the left, right, and above me have decided they are in a band and jammed away on their drums and guitars without a sensitive enough care for their neighbors. , the jiggling of the doorknob is my roommate, she returned far sooner than I had imagined. But then again, it has been seven hours. I had to quickly mute my music. She somehow always returns when I’m listening to intense k-rap. I’m cold. The temperature in this room never gets above seventy-five degrees Fahrenheit, and no, I didn’t spell that right on the first try. Sigh, I have to tilt my lamp down because that too is a white light. Ah, that beep, she just her floor fan. What is wrong with her? Even if I could smell anything, there is nothing to smell except cold leftover pizza and peach tea. Don’t look up, she’ll know I’m listening to her facetime one of her friends on skype.)

Write the setting through the POV character: If you have one. In a previous chapter, I talked about POV and the different types of POV. The main first, second, and third person POV, then I linked to or mentioned briefly some of the more specific types, like third person omniscient or third person multiple. So if you are writing from one character’s POV, you can only write about the things they are aware of and not anything that happens they are unaware of. In third person, there is more leeway, but it still has to focus on whatever characters are present. Also, the author is not a character and I forbid the use of authors telling the story. Unless you are the narrator, out.

(POV: I am me. Yes, she is on her bed. Probably just returned from dance practice. How far away is her practice? I think maybe a twenty minute walk? Less? I know she is talking about dancing with her friend. All the time, on skype with her friend talking about boys or dancing or the injustices of the world.)

Setting is a character: This is pro strats level writing. This sort of setting writing deals with bringing the setting to life and have it tell as much of the story as the plot and the characters. An enclosed space equals isolation, entrapment, darkness. An open space means brightness, happiness, endless possibilities. Settings can reflect the characters, like the condition of a yard from well managed to neglected and wild mirroring a boy who was pampered by his parents then neglected by his adoptive parents (after his first parents die or something).

Something like this is seen the most in the passing of seasons. Stories will start out in a season and go through the cycle as the story goes on. Summer is when they met and married, love a blaze of emotions. Fall is when the tensions started, but they still tried to work it out. Winter is when it all fell apart and they divorced. Spring is when their child is born and they come back together.

(Character: This closed room. Every day I stay in this room as long as possible without leaving. I hardly ever go to student organization meetings, or big study sessions, or hang out with friends. It is almost safe to say that I don’t really have friends on campus. My friend is my laptop for which I surf the web. My friend is my kindle that I use to avoid talking to people. My friend is my blanket that I hide under when my roommate brings other people into the room. Unless I am in class or at my sister’s apartment, I am in my room. She was gone for seven hours, what did I do? Nothing, I was here. I have accomplished nothing with my time in college. I have not gotten an internship or a job, I have not done any research, I have not connected with my fellow classmates or professors. Instead, I seclude myself in the darkness of our terribly lit room and dream of bigger places when the lights are off and the hundreds of stars glow.)

As always, do research for your settings. Look up history, look up architecture, look up pictures. Use references or use what you already know. It’s okay if the setting is your real bedroom or your real school or your real workplace. No one will know but you unless you tell us. 

Setting is important, so work with it and make it fit for your story.